BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH acknowledged on Tuesday that he may have misunderstood a Steve Wynn comment about money during a set of phone calls, but he said there was no mistaking the Las Vegas businessman’s opposition to a Charlestown vote on the proposed Everett casino.
Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi quoted Wynn as telling Walsh that a vote in Charlestown would take place “over my dead body.” She also quoted him as saying he has had enough of Walsh, who he called “irresponsible,” and won’t negotiate anymore with him.
At a press conference in the Seaport District to launch Boston 311, a platform allowing Boston residents to report non-emergency issues to the city, Walsh took numerous questions about his calls with Wynn. What follows is an edited transcript of what he said.
Q: Wynn told the Boston Globe that he’s had enough of you. What’s your response?
WALSH: Just read the article. The comment about Charlestown, I think it’s pretty much said all right there. The people of Charlestown have concerns about the casino, and I stated that on the phone call, obviously as you read in the paper. The response was what you read in the paper, so I’m going to leave it at that.
Q: Did you hang up on Steve Wynn?
WALSH: It wasn’t a hang up. It was more of a, when a statement like that is made, the phone call is over at that point.
Q: How does this rhetoric help you and the city?
WALSH: It doesn’t help me at all…From day one we’ve been very clear on what our intention is here in the city of Boston and what we wanted to do with the casino. I think it’s unfortunate when you have somebody…he appears to get his way a lot and he’s not getting his way and that’s the way he responds. My phone is on. My door is open. Any time a conversation wants to be had about this we will have a conversation. I think it’s very difficult to have a conversation reading in the newspaper all the different accounts of the amount of money that’s coming into different areas. And that’s fine, but I haven’t seen anything, even in the paper articles that I’ve read, with the amount of money that’s supposed to come into the region, there’s no explanation of how or when or where the money is coming from.…
We’re looking for some backup, some concrete backups. As mayor of Boston, if I’m negotiating with a union, I can’t just throw a figure out there and not back it up.
Q: You and Steve Wynn have very different accounts of the conversation you had. Who’s right?
WALSH: I’m not going to get into a he said, she said, but it’s pretty clear what was summed up in the phone call was pretty clear. I said that I want to have Charlestown to have a vote and his response was the response you read today. Word for word he recounted that in the story today.
Q: On the money issue, there seems to be a dispute about whether a nine-figure sum was thrown at you. You say it was. He said it wasn’t. Some people in the Wynn camp say he called you back and said he didn’t say that and that you acknowledged that.
WALSH: When I had a conversation with him the first time, what I thought he said to me was that there would be a large investment made into the Sullivan Square part of Boston, and he put a figure out there. I spoke about that on the radio a couple days later. He called me back and said he never said that, [he] said [he] spent hundreds of millions of dollars already in the Boston area. So maybe I misheard him. I don’t think I would mishear something like that, but if I did and, as I said to Mr. Wynn on the phone, if I did I apologize for that. I was clear about that on the phone. I’m sure he told you that when you talked to him.
Q: But your office issued a statement saying you stand by your account.
WALSH: Because there was a conversation about finances.
Q: He told Joan Vennochi he’s had enough of you. Have you had enough of him?
WALSH: There’s a negotiation going on here. I don’t know what he means by having enough of me. I interpret that as he’s had enough of the people of Boston, because I represent the people of Boston. If he has a problem with the people of Boston, he better rethink as far as how he negotiates.
Q: Why did you bring up your call with Wynn on the radio show? It seemed like Wynn was reaching out to have a dialogue. Why bring it up?
WALSH: I was asked a question….
Q: Yeah, but I’m sure you have confidential talks all the time.
WALSH: When a reporter asks me a question I generally answer the question. Because if I don’t, I get questioned on it later on – why did you say when you were asked on WGBH if you had spoken to anybody. I would not get myself into a situation like that.
Q: Are you hopeful you and Wynn can move past this?
WALSH: I’m already past it. I’m not going to get into a war of words with Steve Wynn. He is trying to build a casino in region A, which incorporates the city of Boston. Our concerns are different. My concern is to make sure that the people of Boston and the people of Charlestown get the representation and the protection that they deserve. There’s going to be a large impact on the people of Charlestown with Sullivan Square and traffic and Rutherford Ave. People are going to be cutting through the community of Charlestown to try to beat Sullivan Square because of the problem that it is today. They do it right now without a casino so now you add tens of thousands of cars a day, that’s going to increase traffic. So I think we can get to a point where we have a conversation. As I said earlier, my phone is always on. I have disagreements with family members. You don’t take it personally. You move on.
Q: You seem to have two demands, that Charlestown votes on the proposed casino and you want money to mitigate the impact.
WALSH: With a casino, that’s what it’s all about, mitigation.
Q: But some people close to you suggest that you have changed your mind about casinos.
WALSH: Who’s close to me?
Q: But they say you don’t think we need a casino in this area.
WALSH: Who said that? I don’t know who said that.
Q: I’m asking you.
WALSH: I’m asking you back.
Q: I can’t tell you.
WALSH: Then I can’t answer because it’s not a question; it’s a hypothetical.
Q: I’m not trying to get you to respond to them. I’m asking whether your position on casinos has changed from when you voted for them in the Legislature.
WALSH: I’m focused right now on the Everett casino, the Boston casino, Sullivan Square, and the people of Charlestown.
